How to Become an Art Director for a Fashion

LONDON, United Kingdom —In his role as art director, Fabien Baron was the man behind some of fashion'south most iconic campaigns and brand logos over the past thirty years. With his knack for instantly recognisable typography and striking imagery, Baron now wears multiple hats, including those of creative director, editor, lensman and designer — sometimes all in the space of a calendar week. "One 24-hour interval I'm working on something commercial, the next twenty-four hours I'm working on a film shoot as a set designer, the day after that I'm at Interview magazine and laying out our comprehend stories," he explains.

Indeed, having founded his pattern and advertisement agency Baron and Baron in the late 1980s, the art director has since taken every opportunity to aggrandize his skill set. "I now understand how a production is manufactured, calendars and scheduling in terms of product launches, events and PR. I have had to grow to stay relevant," he explains.

Kanye Due west on the cover of Interview mag, 2014 | Source: Courtesy Kanye Westward on the cover of Interview magazine, 2014 | Source: Courtesy

Kanye Westward on the cover of Interview magazine, 2014 | Source: Courtesy

Just beyond personal and professional person growth, Baron's decision to expand his skill fix reflects how much the role of an art director has inverse in recent years. "Developing strategy is our chore now — we have to create business organization plans and strategies. It's not simply shooting a campaign. Now nosotros have to consider the why, the how, the market, the business, what we spend. The list goes on and on."

Over the form of his 3 decades in the industry Businesswoman has witnessed a "huge shift," in the manufacture he entered in his 20s. "Print is dying, for sure, as time goes by information technology'due south less and less important. I don't remember people connect with it anymore. But the throwaway nature of digital is a huge problem for manner. The amount of content yous demand to produce for a company has inverse dramatically, and it requires a lot of free energy and sometimes a lot of money to feed that machine — that social motorcar is unbelievable," he continues.

Crucially, the shift towards digital media has altered the function of imagery in the manufacture, and decreased its potential impact. "Fashion is based on imagery and the business is based on image building. Right now, we have all these luxury companies that are still living on the DNA of print [publishing]. For an ad to work it requires a lot — a lot of meetings and marketing, a lot of emotion and work. When all these companies are pushing into digital, they need to know it's throwaway. There's no dream factor and no dimension. If you brand something that is high quality, it's just going to disappear. Gucci is the get-go brand that understands that digital is an amazing platform to share a message. They're developing programmes that are actually in the right theme," believes Baron.

An art director should be a maker, someone that has an opinion on everything.

However, despite the disruption caused by digital media, Baron believes that the fundamental aspects of an art managing director's role remain much the same, but must be reapplied to fit the needs of today's market. Below, mode'south most famous art director shares 5 lessons for success today.

1. Have an opinion, develop a point of view

"You have to be original. I look for people that have their own point of view. That's the near important thing. That's the key, considering if you can take a stand and accept a place where yous believe 'I like this, I like that, I don't want this, I don't desire that,' so number i you can make decisions and number two, yous can accept a genuine stance on fashion. I worked that out very early on on. I had a very clear idea of what I liked, I was very specific about what I liked visually, on an epitome level, on a pattern level and on a graphic level. And I stuck with that. What I've been doing over the years, is developing all the other necessary tools to brand that vocalisation more serviceable to each client."

2. Focus on the client's needs

"When I piece of work with a customer, what I actually want is to service that concern and deliver what they demand and what they expect. I can be at my part working out a campaign for Coach or doing the adjacent campaign with Jennifer Lawrence for Dior. Then I can be looking at a book that I've designed for Calvin Klein, or designing a perfume bottle and the packaging to proceed with that, only for each brand that I piece of work on, the end result is very much what that specific make wants or needs. My personal work is very 'me, myself and I', but when I work with a client I take to truly understand what they desire, and then I am able to maneuver my approach to fit their expectations and evangelize the right piece of work for their needs."

Dior magazine | Source: Courtesy Dior magazine | Source: Courtesy

Dior magazine | Source: Courtesy

3. Encompass trial and fault, new challenges

"[Junior art directors] need to acquire the mindset to be able to say that: tomorrow I'm going to direct a film, the next solar day I'g going to do this, the day after I'm going to exercise that. If you want to be an art director, you tin do that, that's what an art manager should be. All the art directors working at Businesswoman and Baron, fifty-fifty if they join and they've never worked on a film, I put them on a film. Because I believe they can do it. If they accept an opinion, they should accept an opinion on that as well. It's scary for people, but they manage. It'southward trial and error, at the first they don't know what to do, but they acquire. An art director should be a maker, someone that has an stance on everything, and has a very precise point of view that they can apply to different mediums. That's what a good art director should exist."

iv. Don't permit specific skills box in your career

"At the first of my career I was mainly working for magazines, and so my skill set was really specific. I would take materials, editorial, imagery, etc., and create a great mag out of it. I was a packager of appurtenances. Just if you put yourself in a box too chop-chop, it's very unsafe. I didn't desire to do that to myself. [A magazine art managing director's] point of view is like a language, and that language can be translated into unlike mediums. I feel that is upwards to people to say, 'I don't want to be in a box, I don't want to be the guy in the office stuck at my computer all day, doing layouts and putting text hither and there.' I didn't want to be the guy who just does the blazon on the bundle."

5. Go on learning

"I'm never bored because I create opportunities to acquire all the fourth dimension. Throughout my career my betoken of view has remained very consequent, I've stuck with it all my life just what I take inverse is what I tin do. I learned other skills — photography, copywriting — a lot of other things that allowed me to have that indicate of view in different mediums. The more y'all know, the more than you learn, the more knowledgeable you lot are, and the improve able yous are to resolve problems."

Visit BoF Careers to discover exciting career opportunities in Art Management like below:

Art Director, Digital, Tory Burch - New York, U.s.

Art Managing director, carrecouture.com - Gestel, Belgium

Art Manager (Design), Demand Supply Co. - Los Angeles, United States

Jr. Art Director, Moda Operandi - New York, The states

See all of our jobs and career-related content on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for style talent.

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Source: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/workplace-talent/how-to-become-an-art-director-fabien-baron/

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